Lent at St. David's

During Lent a study group meets on Thursday afternoons following the theme of "This is our story: Journeys in faith".  It is tied in with the Sunday morning worship on BBC Radio 4.   http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01qsr8q

Dan has also written a notice to us, thus:

Prayer is not asking for what you think you want,

but asking to be changed in ways you can't imagine.
Kathleen Norris (author; 1947 -  )

Last week Shelagh Pollard was here to lead us into the season of Lent.  Once again Christians around the world heard the story of how Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, to be with the wild creatures and the impossibly wild God who led him there.

Of course the forty days and forty nights that Jesus spent in the wilderness after his baptism recalls the forty years the people of Israel spent wandering in the wilderness after their escape from slavery by passing through the Red Sea.  For both Jesus and the people of Israel, the time in the wilderness was a test for their survival and their faith.  It was a time to understand at a visceral level what it meant to be called by God, chosen for a life of faith.  There were struggles, temptations, dangers and snares – a more harsh reality but otherwise not all that different from the challenges and surprising blessings we experience every day. 

Just as Jesus was called to the wilderness to figure out who he was and what he was meant to do, so we are called in this time of year to lean in and listen carefully to the voice of wisdom that calls us into fullness of life.  It’s a voice that often can get lost in the rush of schedules and the press of responsibilities and the drone of our own mind.  In Lent, we’re invited to walk with Jesus out into the spacious desert where the stars are bright and the silence allows us to listen more carefully.

This Lent, you are also invited in particular ways to step into the wild space of the holy and listen, consider, reflect.  Though we’re halfway through the Lenten series on Thursday afternoons, you’re always welcome to come: at St. David’s, in the Victoria Room, from 1:30 – 2:30.   Feel free to drop-in.

In two weeks, 17 people from St. David’s will travel to Trefeca for our Lenten retreat  The Spirit of Creativity.  There are a few rooms still available if you’d like to jump in.

As Jesus listened to clarify his call, so the work of this congregation now is to continue to listen to clarify the ministry to which you are called.  What will your priorities be?  How do you want to use your resources of time and energy and money?  How is this congregation called to be a life-giving presence to Pontypridd and the wide-world?  This is a time not only for first thoughts and opinions, but for careful discernment and prayer.

Of course, our regular worship on Sunday morning and evening is a time when we’re invited into the wilderness to listen, pray, tell stories, eat a little something and join the wild chorus of frogs, birds and the stones themselves which are known at times to cry out.

However you step into the season of Lent, may the Spirit of God find you wherever you are and offer insight, clarity and blessing.